Reflective Teaching

PREFACE

Reflection is a key to successful learning for teachers and also for learners. It is an underpinning value and a necessary condition to become a professional teacher. Being able to reflect on what, why and how we do things, and develop and enrich our practices, is an essential characteristic of a good teacher. Teachers working in schools, to be effective teachers. will have to evaluate their own practices. This comes through the process of reflection.

Reflection on one’s own experiences and assumptions, as part of the course and classroom enquiry, critical observation and reflective analysis of the practices of teaching, which are some of the key components of professional growth of a teacher, is crucial professionally. Therefore, this handbook on Reflective Teaching has been developed to serve as a reference material to improve one’s professional practice and expertise. This handbook is expected to facilitate the need to think which aspects of their professional practices are most effective in teaching context; which they would like to continue to use and which one requires to be improved upon.

National Curriculum Framework (NCF-2005) recommends a paradigm shift in the teaching-learning process from a behaviourist to a constructivist approach. Keeping in consideration the socio-cultural context and varied experiences of learners as laid down in the Framework, teachers are expected to be reflective practitioners and be competent to use multiple methods and techniques to engage the learners. Subsequent changes in teacher education programmes visualised in the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE-2009) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) Regulations, 2014, also emphasise the need for reflective practice in teaching. ‘Reflective Practice’ has emerged as the central focus of teacher education programmes in the present context. Pedagogical practices of teachers need to constantly change and grow to meet the diverse needs through critical reflection by teachers on their own practices. Hence, there was an urgency to bring out a handbook towards preparing reflective teachers to help transform teaching into a new mode for emerging aspirations.